The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-06-04

of them. Some consider the produc.
tons of the garden as constituting
necessary part of human food. So the
man of the forest will tell us that bread
is an unnecessary article of food, the
Abyssinian that 1t is unnecessary to
cook our meat, and many of the inbab-
itants of Asia would insist that it is
impious to indulge in the use of ami
nal food at all. But as none of these
opinions are suited to our age and
country, there is no use in combating
them. The pleasures and benefits OF
a garden are so manifest that none who
have enjoyed them are willing volun-
tarily TO do without them, To have n
succession of delicious fruits, plucked
at maturity from the trees and vines
which one has planted and reared, and
to partake daily of fl esh gathered vegct-
ables from ones garden, the product of
his labor, promotivo alike of health
and pleasure, are no mean gratiiica-
tons; and yet they are privileges, | am
too sorry to say, which, though all can
enjoy. but few, comparatively, at pres
ent do participate in.
Let me enumerate some of the good
things, conducive alike to health and
innocent qualification, which garden
may be made to produce with very
little expense. Our perennial products,
which require very little care after they
are once established. | will name, of
fruits, the strawberry Qor these will be
smothered by the grass on well-con-
Quoted farm), the currant, gooseberry,
plum, pear, ounce, grape, and, in sit
uations where they will thrive, the
apricot and peach. But of fruits, /
would have none but the best sorts;
for the best are as cheap as the worst,
are as easily cultivated, and are infn-
itely more healthy and grateful. These,
if well selected, will give a succession
of fruit from June to November, and
in preserved state during the year.
Plants, to begin with, will cost from
SO to S.. They may be multiplied by
grating, budding, ETC., by the boys or
men of the family, without any ex-
pense. The trees should be so arrang-
ed as to shade as little as possible the
grounds that are to be titled. Half a
dozen roots of the pie-plant Crhubarb)
will furnish abundant materials for
pies and tarts, little, if any, inferior to
the gooseberry, from April to July, or
until the fruit is sufficiently advanced
to supply its place. These should be
planted two feet apart in good soil.
A bed of 40x3! feet will supply the
table with delicious asparagus during
a part of April and the whole of May
and June, if kept in good order. For
this the ground should be dug deep
and made rich. The seed, which will
cost shilling, should be sown in drills
ten or twelve inches apart, about the
first of May; the bed should be kept
free from weeds, and the ground fork
ed in the Spring. The third year it
will be fit to cut Or roots may be
bought at fifty cents the hundred,
which will give a crop the Sec
ond year. Plant them six inches
apart in the drills About $50 plants
will fill bed of the given dimentions.
Among the perennials may also class
some medical plants and sweet herbs
which are useful and necessary in the
economy of a family, such as sage,
thyme, hyssop, balm, rue, tansy, worm
wood, etc, which II requires ten times
the labor to beg from more provident
neighbors than it does to raise in our
garden. The annual products which 60
towards subsisting family, and which
are seldom produced but in the garden,
are numerous, as the onion, beet, car
rot, parsnip, cabbage, peas, beans, pot
herbs, salads, radishes, squash, cucum-
Der, melon, etc. Some Of these are in
use most of the season, and most Of
them afford valuable Winter stores.
These productions of the garden
which Ihave named-and the list might
be greatly extended-are all useful in
The economy Of family. They afford
4 grateful variety, and tend to lessen,
in no inconsiderable degree. the guam
lily of more solid and expensive food
which would be required without them;
and yet they may all be produced in
,,ff;o;ant ouantitiaa for an ordin arv